Five local business and educational leaders have been elected to serve on the Portage County Junior Achievement Board of Directors, effective July 1.
Those elected include Debbie Diekelman, Cheryl Fedje, Cliff King, Gene LaRose and Paul Piikkila.
Diekelman is vice president finance of Steel King Industries Inc.; Fedje is professor of family and consumer Education, School of Health Promotion and Human Development, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point; King is president of Skyward Inc.; LaRose is a retired principal in the Stevens Point Area School System; and Piikkila is assistant vice president commercial lender for M& I Mid-State Bank.
Junior Achievement is the world's largest and fastest-growing nonprofit economic education organization. Its programs, which reach more than 3 million students annually, are taught by classroom volunteers from the business community in both the U.S. and in nearly 100 countries worldwide.
Junior Achievement programs span grades K-12, with age-appropriate curricula designed to teach elementary students about their roles as individuals, workers and consumers and to prepare middle grade and high school students for key economic and workforce issues they will face.
In addition to bringing to the free enterprise system to life in the classroom, Junior Achievement programs teach youngsters the importance of staying in school. The organization also offers programs for youngsters who may have difficulty graduating from high school.